Get Your Kicks
by vivaforever597
Summary: Zack and Ivy try to solve Carmen's latest clue.


Carmen's image sparkled on the large monitor. "When nine times eleven is inverted, and valerian is dug from the ground, you'll find me out of order at the site of an American sound," she intoned.

Zack snorted. "It didn't make any more sense the second time. What, Carmen's combining math problems with a botany lesson?"

Ivy tapped her chin with a pencil. "I don't know, Zack. You know Carmen likes word play. There must be more than what's on the surface."

"Yeah, but 'nine times eleven inverted'? Nine times eleven is ninety-nine... So the inversion is 1/99. What, she's planning to steal one ninety-ninth of something?"

"Eh," Ivy grunted noncommittally. "Carmen's brilliant, but math isn't her specialty."

"And what the heck's valerian, anyway?" Zack demanded. "Player, info-scan."

The CHIEF popped onto the screen. "Valerian is an herb with sweet-smelling flowers once used as perfume. The oil of its root is commonly used as an herbal supplement to induce sleep."

"So Carmen's planning to put the world to sleep, huh?" Zack muttered dryly.

"Unless..." Ivy breathed. "Unless she doesn't mean the plant itself. 'When valerian is dug from the ground'... And it's the root of the plant that's used in medicine. So what if she doesn't mean the root of a plant, but a route, like a road?"

Zack laughed. "Boy, that narrows it down, Ivy. How many roads are there in the world?"

"Hey, at least it gets us started. You think she's going after Interstate 80 again?"

"Nah. She doesn't usually go after something she's lifted a second time. So if it is a road she wants..."

"Waiiiit a minute." Zack grinned. "Maybe that's the nine times eleven inverted. She didn't mean inverting it mathematically - she was just turning it upside-down! And 99 turned upside-down is..."

"Route 66, one of the most famous American highways!" Ivy finished.

"But Route 66 was over 2000 miles long," Zack objected. "Is she planning to steal the whole thing?"

"She has to start somewhere," Ivy murmured. "What about the second half of the clue - 'the American sound'?"

"Country music?" Zack suggested. "Doesn't seem to have much to do with Route 66."

Ivy's face lit up. "Zack! She means music all right, but not country. The other great American genre. Jazz! Remember when Mom and Dad took us to that Nat King Cole tribute show? One of his biggest hits was called..."

Zack bolted out of his chair. "...'Route 66'! Ivy, that's it!"

"So what about the 'out of order' part?" Ivy demanded.

"Eh, maybe we don't have to figure everything out. Should we head for... what, Nat King Cole's house?"

Ivy shook her head. "Carmen doesn't say things needlessly. Something that's out of order is... what? Backwards?"

Zack sighed. "We could check out... I don't know, the cities mentioned in the song?"

"It's as good a place to start as any," Ivy agreed. "Player, bring up a map for us." The screen filled with a map of the western half of the US, with a line slowly tracing the route: St. Louis, Joplin, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Gallup, Flagstaff, Winona...

"Hey, wait," Zack said suddenly. "Look - the line went backwards. It looks like all the cities are mentioned moving from east to west, except that one. Info-scan, CHIEF?"

"Walnut, or Winona, Arizona was a small town east of Flagstaff. Aside from its mention in the song 'Route 66,' its only claim to fame is a train collision in 1909. Uh, that's really it, detectives."

"So it is out of order," Zack said. "East of the city named before it instead of west."

Ivy grinned. "Seems so, little bro. Sounds like we've found Carmen's rendezvous point. Player, C-5 us to Winona, Arizona."

* * *

Carmen sat sunning herself in the driver's seat of her convertible, parked in view of the old Route 66 bridge over Walnut Creek. She was used to pushing her capers off onto her henchpeople, but this one... this very special one... She was going to enjoy pulling it off herself. Those detectives didn't know what they were in for.

Then she heard a faint sound, as if something had opened a ways away. The C-5 corridor. Curses. They'd solved her little clue more quickly than she'd expected. No matter - she could still have her fun.

She started the engine and pulled out of her parking spot. Her fun was just beginning.


End file.
